The Prequel to the O'Malley Saga

My review is at the end. Special thanks to Bethany House and CFBA for both a paper copy and a Netgalley ebook copy of this book for review.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Jennifer: An O’Malley Love Story Bethany House Publishers (May 1, 2013) by Dee Henderson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dee Henderson is the bestselling, award-winning author of 15 previous novels, including the acclaimed O'MALLEY series and UNCOMMON HEROES series. These days, most authors are out there energetically promoting their books in print and broadcast and via social media—wherever they can get attention. But Dee Henderson keeps a low profile. She avoids telephone interviews because of hearing problems, declined to provide a current photo, and will say only that she lives in Illinois.

 ABOUT THE BOOK

It's a summer of change for Jennifer O'Malley. The busy physician has a pediatrics practice in Dallas, and meeting Tom Peterson, and falling in love, is adding a rich layer to her life. She's sorting out how to introduce him to her family--she's the youngest of seven--and thinking about marriage.

She's falling in love with Jesus too, and knows God is good. But that faith is about to be tested in a way she didn't expect, and the results will soon transform her entire family.


If you would like to read the first chapter of Jennifer: An O’Malley Love Story, go to HERE.

Review:

This is a novella that Dee Henderson has been wanting to publish for years. It tells how Jennifer, the first one of the O'Malleys to follow Jesus, came to faith. It also talks about all the things that happened both before and alongside the beginning of The Negotiator.

I have been a big fan of the O'Malley books by Dee Henderson for years. I wrote reviews of them all for Multnomah when they first came out, and I could hardly wait for each new story.


Until now, we have only gotten glimpses of Jennifer's story in each of the other novels about each of the O'Malley siblings. This novella takes us back to the beginning of Jennifer and Tom's story (with only a few possible anachronisms, although when Henderson changed publishers, perhaps those things were updated in more recent editions of the novels).

While short, it was also sweet, and now I want to reread the whole series. Perhaps I'll have time to do so this summer.